The West Coast premiere of Poro Oyna: The Myth of the Aynu, is a collaborative undertaking featuring master musicians representing the indigenous Aynu community of Hokkaido, Japan. The Aynu are a people who are little known in the west. The project will provide the Bay Area audience with a rare opportunity to experience the mystery and power of this ancient culture through the prism of modern shadow theatre. Poro Oyna, “the Great Story,” is an Aynu creation myth that evolves around the legend of Aynu Rakkur, who is a god who “looks and smells like a human.” He is considered to be the progenitor of human beings (“aynu”) and most powerful of all gods in the Aynu mythological world.